Waiting
by TFALokiwriter
Summary: It started with waiting with hope and optimism at the bridge of the Jupiter 2 then became tainted by resentment and blame as time went by.


"We're going to wait for them."

It was one night, long ago, on the bridge of the Jupiter 2. Spider looked down upon the fifteen year old who was torn between making the machine and not making it at all. But a year or two would the trick. The boy had grieved for the loss of his family for weeks on end in private in his quarters.

Spider looked down upon the boy.

"Wait for who, my dear son?" Spider asked.

"Dad and Don." Will said.

Spider looked on toward the distance.

"We don't know if that bubble will ever come back." Spider said. "It could be a lifetime."

"It will." Will said. "Some day. Dad and Don will help us on the invention."

"Sure, they shall." Spider said. "When they hear of the women's demise, they will be working with us diligently."

Will nodded then looked out the window of the Jupiter 2.

* * *

Will was seventeen when he ordered Spider to help him take apart the astronavigator and took on the role that Spider was guiding him toward by every passing day. More so waiting for him to come around. The project had started out small but as time waned on, it grew in size as the astronavigator was taken apart and the bridge began the process of becoming a shadow of itself.

Behind those eyes, Spider saw resentment and rage growing behind them.

A part of him was concerned. Who was he getting angry at? A part of him worried; he knew.

But, as the young man did little action toward him and focused on the machine those fears were eased away.

The thought nagged at Spider as the years went by.

He stared down the sleeping form of the young man one night and watched as a rebuilt Robot took him to bed.

Things were going along nicely.

"Go away. I don't want you. Go away."

But the boy's sleep talk got at him.

_Who was he so angry at?_

* * *

As Will grew older, the one habit that he forged after being stranded followed him.

It was of staring out the window to the Jupiter 2 scanning the environment for _them_.

Them; Professor John Robinson and Major Don West of the United Global Space Force.

For two impossible figures coming out returning with more fuel that the ship could leave with.

He grew up to be a old man waiting. And he was so tired of _waiting_. But he had to wait for what he wanted to happen. They were never going to come back to the Jupiter 2. He had changed from the hopeful and optimistic boy into a cynical and bitter man regarding what had happened. He wasn't the same helpless child. He was a old man capable of changing the situation to his liking. But, as he had been given the task of waiting, he had became patient.

Waiting, as he always had been, scanning the area this time without hope but with a burning desire to be angry. Angry. Angry at what he had been tossed into and forced to become. Angry at having forced to become the man who had to do what his fathwer had failed to do all those years ago. Keep the family safe. But delay the mission, stop Smith, and let Mission Control deal with the consequences of having delayed the mission.

* * *

"Will." Spider joined the younger man's side.

"Yeah, old monster?" Will looked up from the machine on a lift toward the man.

"It has been thirty years," Spider said.

"What about it?" Will asked.

"Thirty years is a long time." Spider said. "Thirty years might have spoiled the feelings you should be experiencing. Are you . . ." he didn't want to finish the question but the uncertain had to be quashed. "feeling any of those?"

"It is." Will nodded. "And I am." Will turned his attention on to the console pressing buttons at a time setting in the command to open a time portal that was roughly the size of the astronavigator hole. "You don't know how much anticipation I am feeling."

"Do you still miss your father?" Spider looked toward his companion.

"No." Will said. "Because he is standing beside me."

Spider sighed, exasperated.

"My dear son," Spider said, slowly. "My words may be sprinkled with affection . . . but, I am not the man who raised you for ten years on Earth."

"_Seven _years." Will corrected.

Spider's face fell crest fallen.

"Seven is too less." Spider said. "I thought he were around longer."

"He threw himself into the program with my eldest sister and didn't look back." Will said. "All the preparations for the mission; all three years of it. And he didn't really come out of it."

"You have never discussed your father's presence in your life before I entered it," Spider said. "I had assumed your memories of him were ones not to be talked of lightly or fondly to the very person who sent him off course."

"He brought my family to the fangs of Death when we didn't want to. It would have happened anyway, Doctor Smith. Alpha Prime A was a whole new and unexplored world that could be a horrifying death planet compared to this planet and Earth." Will said as Spider doubted the comment by the younger man. "I didn't like space. And still don't. It was unknown, scary, and dreary. And it is just the way I thought it would be."

Spider's dulled blue eyed looked toward the machine below them.

"William, this effort of yours. . ." Spider said. "When you back," Will looked toward the taller man. "_if _you get back," Will turned his attention back on to the console. "you may land earlier than anticipated."

"Doctor Smith, this is a very reliable system." Will said. "Glitches have been ironed out in simulations."

"For all you know, you might be the creator of Global Sedition." Spider said

Will laughed.

"Me? Starting a terrorist organization that wants to kill my family?" Will asked. "No."

"It could have been a funny but cruel joke." Spider folded his arms. "But, it isn't. It's a very real possibility. You may be the entire_ reason_ I am here."

Will looked toward the older man.

"Wait. . ." Will said. "Really?"

"Really." Spider replied. "They were very insistent that the Jupiter not launch LONG before it had a name." Will listened as the information sunk in. "They were so desperate I get on there that they fulfilled my every demands on the funds."

"It's a possibility." Will said.

"It is." Spider said.

"This time it won't launch." Will said. "I will make sure of it. And I accept the risk you have mentioned. Because it is something worth trying."

Spider nodded, admiring the determination of the younger man, the courage, the insistence of trying. The thought of trying to change their fate as he grew to be a old man was the one part Spider admired of Will. Family, the one thing pushing him to go on despite the potential outcomes. And yet, he felt personal pride at the answer. A wave of warmth and heartbreak.

"I have done my cassandra truth role of this mission," Spider said. "And my other roles for you."

"You still have one." Will said with a grin.

"What is it?" Spider asked, curiously.

"Being my father figure to the end of the line." Will said. "You still have that role."

"I accept that role with the highest integrity!" Spider said, proudly. "To the most daring and determined family man that I have gotten the opportunity to get to know."

"With this last try, then. . ." Will couldn't finish the comment. He didn't know what to say. The words just wouldn't come out.

"This final try will feature time bubbles; will they not?" Spider said.

"The very same." Will nodded.

"You could go back to your family through them." Spider suggested.

Will folded his arms.

"They are unpredictable." Will started. "I can't rely on them remaining for long. Even if I wanted to; the spiders would still come."

"Ah. I see." Spider nodded. "This makes sense."

"I want to do that, Doctor Smith. Much as I like to, the only way to save them and be reunited with them then it is to be from afar after halting the whole launch all together." Will said.

"Bittersweet ending, William."

"The only one that has been waiting for this entire adventure." Will said. "It could have been tragic. Losing each other in the last thirty years? This would have taken longer to make."

Spider's face softened looking down upon him.

"Do me one favor, my dear son."

Will looked up toward him.

"What kind of favor?"

Spider smiled, sweetly, but tired in such a way that Will could have seen how he would have looked as a old man.

"Remember me." Spider said.

"I will." Will said, fondly. "You made a pretty great father. That is not easy to forget."

Spider's frame shook with laughter as he lowered his head then raised it up facing the younger man.

"You didn't make it easy." Smith reminded, fondly.

"Unlike him, I like you. Unlike him, you came back for me time and time and time again. Unlike him, you protected me. Unlike you, he didn't come back for me in those three years. Unlike him, you helped me become the man I am today."

"You helped me overcome several obstacles to making this machine and I had my doubts on continuing it with each failure. But, you kept coming to me with Robot reminding me who I was building it for. You got my spirits back up, put my back on my feet, tended to my wounds, and saw to it that my little childhood wish happened."

"You promised me, all those years ago, that you would do anything to make sure I saw my family again after I started the project to save them. You were there for me when I was sad, angry, and at my worst."

"You helped me survive on this planet. Unlike him, you taught me things that he should have done. He did none of that. I hate him for acting like I didn't exist to him. I really do. But . . . you act like I am a person, that I am here, that I exist. And that is all I really want from a father." Then he paused. "Asides to not wanting to go into the stars and go on a road trip without consulting his family whether or not they wanted to go out there."

Spider frowned then grimaced looking down upon Will.

"Hate is a strong word, William." Spider said, softly. "A joyful family reunion spoiled by resentment when he finally comes through for you." he raised his head up then turned it toward Will. "The possibility is that when you finally turn the machine on for long, he will return to you."

"He won't." Will said, certain. "He never returned to me for thirty-three years. He won't return when I most need him. Never appeared when I needed him."

"It has been thirty," Spider said.

The anger, the resentment, and bitterness was quite unique. Thirty years, all those feelings pent up were caused by the professor. Not by him.

"He left when I was seven years old then his body walked on when I was ten." Will said. "Thirty-three years."

Will pressed a button. So much resentment radiated from the older man. It was if he resented the father figure who was supposed to be his father like there wasn't any tomorrow. There wasn't going to be a tomorrow if the time machine worked, Spider was certain. Inwardly, Spider chuckled at the thought. And all that resentment would all be for nothing.

They looked toward the portal spotting the small portal appearing then they gasped at once.

"It is working." Spider said, in awe as the bridge of the Jupiter 2 was highlighted in orange. "How . . . How . . . how. . . how beautiful." He stared in fascination. "Marvelous. I knew you could do it! I knew it all along!" Spider applauded his hands with a grin then rubbed them together. "Bravo, William! Bravo!"

"Going to be fully powered by tonight." Will said. "I can start the mission at eight thirty-seven at night."

"Tonight. . ." Spider became choked up. "I feel that I might cry. The young Doctor Smith being spared of this_ hellish_ agony."

Will sent a command into the lift then it moved toward the monster and he delivered a pat on the older man's shoulder.

"I will make sure Mission Control is lenient on you after they get you apprehended." Will promised.

Spider flicked a tear off then looked toward Will.

"It's a shame that this companionship has to end. It will be down to the booby and I," Spider admitted, motioning his head toward the window up front where Robot was on patrol outside of the ship quite below it. Spider shook his head. "I almost don't look forward to it."

"I do." Will smiled, placing a hand on Spider's shoulder.

"Why?" All though he knew the answer, Spider was certain, he wanted to hear it anyway.

Will smiled, brightly, in such a way that was precious. It was one of his rare genuine smiles.

"I get to repay you for being the dad I needed the most." Spider began to sniffle at the unexpected answer. "Let's have a hug for old times sake."

Smith slipped into the lift then hugged the young man, tightly, then smiled from other side of the hug with some tears being shed.

"I am going to miss you, dearly." Spider admitted.

"It is not good-bye, yet!" Will protested with a laugh.

"Might as well say it now." Spider said. "Things do happen awfully fast."

He sniffled wiping the tears off with his long claw.

"I won't say mine until the jump." Will laughed. "I will make it a slow moment."

His plan _had _worked up to this point.

"I look forward to your elegant good-bye, my dear. . . _son_." Spider said, patting on the younger man's back as his voice cracked.

He was going to conquer Earth. And the Robinsons would be dead sooner instead of later. And he would be rich beyond his wildest dreams. He had to only go through a few more motions and he would come out on top as he had many times before with his new form.

Yet, he couldn't help but pity the future that laid ahead of Will, eaten alive or jumping into the portal to change history before Spider could eliminate him. His future was doomed either way. If Spider changed the future; then the time loop would never happen. A time loop that had been made by a paradox that should never have existed. The entire Jupiter 2 mission was tangled in it.

They parted ways then Smith leaped down toward the front window and, as Will and he had done many times before, waited.

If Spider admitted; he was going to miss the younger man, maybe a little. Dead or alive.

**The End. **


End file.
